Coverage expansion for non-invasive prenatal testing: clinical benefits, modest budget increase.

These are the main findings of a US study that assessed the impact of coverage expansion for NIPT, a more accurate method to screen for fetal aneuploidies such as trisomy 21, on prenatal screening strategies using claims data from Harvard Pilgrim Health Care (HPHC). A performance-based risk-sharing (PBRS) agreement to expand coverage for non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) in pregnant women aged < 35 years can increase the use of NIPT and decrease the use of conventional screening methods with a modest increase in payer expenditures. The budget-impact analysis showed that expanded coverage for NIPT resulted in a modest increase in per-member per-month expenditures of $US0.026. [Extracted from the article]